Charecteristics of Grendel

“And that night Grendel came again, so set on murder that no crime could ever be enough, no savage assault quench his lust for evil.” (pg.2, 49-54) Beowulf is a tale of a powerful hero Beowulf and numerous monsters he had to defeat to protect the people of England. One of the monsters he fights was Grendel. An epic, originally written in old English and transcribed around 1030, Beowulf tells about the lives of people living in Denmark or southern Sweden around 550 and 600 AD. Grendel brought terror to the Danes and Beowulf came to their rescue. In the epic tale Beowulf, Grendel’s character is the protagonist. He is a descendant of Cain. He lives amongst the Danes in dark, terrible places. The character of Grendel is portrayed as evil. This is proven by study of Grendel’s Actions, motives, and the diction used to describe him throughout Beowulf.
Grendel’s action throughout Beowulf, are both evil and inhumane. Grendel terrorizes the Danes killing as much as he wants. He visited in the middle of the night and slaughtered whoever he could. “Grendel snatched up the first Geat he came to, ripped him apart, cut his body with powerful jaws, drank the blood from his veins.”(pg.32, 421-424) Grendel was a murderous monster and acted as such. He didn’t care about anyone or anything. He killed with no remorse and took pleasure in his actions. He was full of evil. Grendel acted as if he had no conscience or heart, relentlessly and hateful. All of his actions throughout Beowulf portray the evil in his heart.
The words describing Grendel’s character in Beowulf, all have evil meanings behind it. At the beginning of the epic Grendel is presented as a monster and a descendant of Cain, a murderous creature banished by God. “Conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain”. (pg.21,20-21) Even Grendel’s origins were evil. He began evil and his parents were of evil origins also. Beowulf, uses a specific diction when describing Grendel. His character has historical, evil roots. He even had the appearance of evil: claws, powerful jaws. All of Grendel’s characteristics were described as being some type of evil.
Grendel’s motives all stemmed from his lust for evil. After the first attack Grendel continued to kill and wreak havoc on the hall of Herot. King Hrothgar was full of sorrow and wanted his people to e freed from the monster. Everyone who fought against Grendel lost. “Keeping the bloody feud alive, seeking no peace, offering no truce, accepting no settlement, no price in gold or land.” (pg.22, 68-69) Grendel’s motives behind his malicious actions stemmed from his lusts for evil. He has no real reason at all to kill the Danes. His motives are pure evil. His heart and soul are filled with evil. He kills simply because he can. He gets pleasure out of killing.
Every aspect of Grendel portrays evil from his actions and motives to the words used to describe him in the epic Beowulf. He relentlessly killed and destroyed whenever he pleased. His lust for evil powered his actions. Spawned from monsters creatures banished by God, he was evil from the beginning. The words used to describe him portray his evil characteristics to the reader. The character, Grendel, was depicted as monstrous to the reader threw every aspect of his personage.